Ipomoea batatas is a member of the morning glory family Convolvulaceae. This species is grown worldwide and exhibits a wide range of plant forms and colors. The cultivated members of Ipomoea batatas that are grown by farmers are commonly produced for consumption of their enlarged storage roots. Such plants typically produce a fast growing green vine that has a wide variety of leaf shapes ranging from palmate and deeply lobed, to cordate or triangular shaped leaves with no lobes.
Ornamental sweetpotato plants, like their edible forms, are a heat-loving, drought tolerant, perennial vine, typically grown as an annual. However, ornamental sweetpotato plants are distinguished from the edible cultivated forms in that they possess unique foliage colors, leaf shapes, and growth habits, which have significant value in the ornamental marketplace.
Ornamental sweetpotatoes are desirable in the landscape and ornamental industries because their foliage comes in a wide variety of colors (e.g. pale yellow to dark purple with some exhibiting temporal and individual leaf color variegation patterns) and plant shapes (e.g. mounded and very compact to prostrate and highly spreading). They can be grown in a potted plant and/or mixed planting format, and they have the ability to cover a large space or hang over walls and decorative pots creating brightly colored and textured backdrops in gardens and patios. Most ornamental sweetpotatoes grow and last the entire growing season and they require little maintenance. Moreover, these plants have few insect or disease problems.
Applicants desire to produce new cultivars of ornamental sweetpotato with new or improved foliage colors, variegation patterns, leaf shapes, and plant architectures. In addition, applicants believe it would be advantageous to develop cultivars of ornamental sweetpotato exhibiting a more compact growth that do not out-compete other species in mixed containers.
‘NCORNSP-015SCPI’ addresses at least one of the above-mentioned needs.
Lineage. ‘NCORNSP-015SCPI’ (breeding designation NC4626-002ORN) originated from open pollinated seed harvested from the proprietary Ipomoea batatas breeding line NC1926-001ORN (the female parent; not patented). Botanical seed was harvested from this and other ornamental sweetpotato lines planted in our winter greenhouse crossing block between September of 2005 and April of 2006 in Raleigh, N.C. NC1926-001ORN resulted from open pollinated seed harvested from the proprietary Ipomoea batatas breeding line ‘NCN36-001ORN’ (the female parent; not patented). Botanical seed from this half-sib family were planted in the greenhouses in Spring 2006. The first cycle of selection on the population was exercised in the seedling trays and survivors were transferred to a single 6-inch pot, which was then maintained in the greenhouse. Cuttings (2 each) were taken from the plants in May and planted in the field as 2-plant unreplicated plots during early July 2006. The single, individual plant now known as ‘NCORNSP-015SCPI’ was selected Sep. 26, 2006 because of its combination of exceptional features, and has been propagated asexually in Raleigh, N.C. since that time.
Asexual Reproduction. Since its selection, Ipomoea batatas ‘NCORNSP-015SCPI’ has been asexually reproduced in Raleigh, N.C. predominantly by vegetative propagation of vine cuttings. Successively, there have been five cycles of vegetative propagation, one cycle of tissue culture micropropagation, and multiple vegetative propagation cycles to increase the plant population. Asexual reproduction of ‘NCORNSP-015SCPI’ by cuttings has shown that the unique features of the new cultivar are stable and the plant reproduces true-to-type in successive generations.